Welcome Through Football

Welcome Through Football

Welcome Through Football is an EFDN initiative. Current projects across Europe receive funding from the Eramus+ programme of the European Union and the UEFA Foundation for Children.

The Welcome Through Football 2021 project aims to assist in the integration and inclusion of recently arrived young refugees, asylum seekers and young people with a migrant background. EFDN and partners will develop and test a European methodology that uses football as a tool to reach refugees and migrants from different ages (7-25 years old) to get them physically and social active in European communities.

Moreover, the project assists football coaches and youth workers in the development and sharing of effective methods in reaching out to the marginalised target group, in preventing racism and intolerance.

WELCOME THROUGH FOOTBALL HAS A 3 STEP PROCESS, WHICH IS:

1. Socialisation to sports – providing different football offerings for young refugees of both genders related to their specific requirements such as language skills or the possibility of trauma.
2. Socialisation in sports – working on team structure, giving more responsibility to the participants and offering additional steps out with the sports training sessions.
3. Socialisation through sports – Focusing on the skills the participants learn from taking part in the available offers so that they qualify for further education in and outside of sports.

THE CLUBS PARTICIPATING IN THE PROJECTS INCLUDE:

• Shakhtar Social
• Sheffield United Community Foundation
• Fundação Benfica
• Naoberschap United (FC Emmen)
• Werder Bremen
• Everton in the Community
• Apollon Limassol
• AEK Athens 
• Big Hearts Community Trust 
• Newcastle United Foundation 
• KAA Gent 

Our participants 

13-year-old Robert and 10-year-old Bohdan Kalinin moved from Luhansk to Kyiv in the autumn of 2014. The boys love playing football, but after the relocation the family was not able to pay for sports classes. During the Welcome through Football sessions, the boys met the guys they used to play in the yard with, and also made new friends. According to the boys, the sessions are interesting and fun. The brothers’ mother says that in those training sessions the guys get the most important thing – support and integration.

15-year-old Aram from Uzbekistan is training with FC Emmen. He is always looking forward to the Monday and Friday afternoon training sessions. “I love to be active and play football together. We learn from the trainers of FC Emmen how to play together and help each other make goals. I used to play football in Uzbekistan. The training I get here from FC Emmen coaches is much more fun because I get good tips, for example how best to walk free or how best to accept a ball.”

Gallery

Funding partners

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)